READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15-27, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
 
 
Expertise is commitment coupled with creativity. Specifically, it is the commitment (sự tận tụy, sự cống
hiến) of time, energy, and resources to a relatively narrow field of study and the creative energy necessary to
generate new knowledge in that field. It takes a considerable amount of time and regular exposure to a large
number of cases to become an expert.
 
An individual enters a field of study as a novice. The novice needs to learn the guiding principles (nguyên tắc
hướng dẫn) and rules- the heuristics (sự khám phá) and constraints (sự ràng buộc) - of a given task in order to
perform that task. Concurrently (đồng thời), the novice needs to be exposed to specific (cụ thể) cases, or
instances, that test the boundaries of such heuristics (sự khám phá). Generally, a novice will find a mentor to
guide her through the process of acquiring new knowledge. A fairly simple example would be someone
learning to play chess. The novice chess player seeks a mentor to teach her the object of the game, the number
of spaces, the names of the pieces, the function of each piece, how each piece is moved, and the necessary
conditions for winning or losing the game.
 
In time, and with much practice, the novice begins to recognize patterns of behavior within cases and, thus,
becomes a journeyman (thợ lành nghề). With more practice and exposure to increasingly complex cases, the
journeyman finds patterns (mô hình, kiểu mẫu, khuôn) not only within cases but also between cases. More
importantly, the journeyman learns that these patterns often repeat themselves over time. The journeyman still
maintains regular contact with a mentor to solve specific problems and learn more complex strategies.
Returning to the example of the chess player, the individual begins to learn patterns of opening moves,
offensive and defensive game-playing strategies, and patterns of victory and defeat.
 
When a journeyman starts to make and test hypotheses (giả thuyết) about future behavior based on past
experiences, she begins the next transition (bắt đầu 1 bước chuyển biến mới). Once she creatively generates
knowledge, rather than simply matching superficial (bề ngoài, nông cạn, hời hợt) patterns, she becomes an
expert. At this point, she is confident in her knowledge and no longer needs a mentor as a guide- she becomes
responsible for her own knowledge. In the chess example, once a journeyman begins competing against
experts, makes predictions based on patterns, and tests those predictions against actual behavior, she is
generating new knowledge and a deeper understanding of the game. She is creating her own cases rather
than relying on the cases of others.
 
The chess example is a rather short description of an apprenticeship (học việc) model. Apprenticeship may
seem like a restrictive (hạn chế, giới hạn)18th-century mode of education, but it is still a standard method of
training for many complex tasks. Academic doctoral programs (chương trình học tiếng sĩ) are based on an
apprenticeship model, as are fields like law, music, engineering, and medicine. Graduate students enter
fields of study, find mentors, and begin the long process of becoming independent experts and generating new
knowledge in their respective domains (lĩnh vực = fiels/ area). To some, playing chess may appear rather trivial
(unimportant) when compared, for example, with making medical diagnoses (chẩn đoán y khoa), but both are
highly complex tasks. Chess has a well-defined (rõ ràng, sáng sủ) set of heuristics, whereas medical diagnoses
seem more open-ended and variable (có thể thay đổi, khác biệt, biến số). In both instances, however, there are
tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of potential patterns. A research study discovered that chess masters had
spent between 10,000 and 20,000 hours, or more than ten years, studying and playing chess. On average, a
chess master stores, 50,000 different chess patterns in long-term memory.
 
Similarly, a diagnostic radiologist (chuyên gia chẩn đoán hình ảnh X-quang) spends eight years in full-time
medical training – four years of medical school and four years of residency (bsĩ nội trú = early-career medical
practitioner) - before she is qualified to take a national board exam (thi kì thi hội đồng quốc gia) and begin
independent practice (hành nghề độc lập). According to a 1988 study, the average diagnostic radiology resident
sees forty cases per day, or around 12,000 cases per year. At the end of a residency (bsĩ nội trú), a diagnostic
radiologist has stored, on average, 48,000 cases in long-term memory. Psychologists and cognitive (nhận thức)
scientists agree that the time it takes to become an expert depends on the complexity (tính phức tạp) of the task
and the number of cases, or patterns, to which an individual is exposed (tiếp xúc). The more complex the task,
the longer it takes to build expertise (xây dựng/ tích lũy kiến thức chuyên môn), or, more accurately, the longer
it takes to experience and store a large number of cases or patterns.
 
Experts are individuals with specialized knowledge suited to perform the specific tasks for which they are
trained, but that expertise (kiến thức chuyên môn) does not necessarily transfer to other domains. A master
chess player cannot apply chess expertise in a game of poker - although both chess and poker are games, a
chess master who has never played poker is a novice poker player. Similarly, a biochemist is not qualified to
perform neurosurgery (phẫu thuật thần kinh), even though both biochemists and neurosurgeons study human
physiology (sinh lý học). In other words, the more complex a task is, the more specialized and exclusive (độc
quyền, riêng biệt) is the knowledge required to perform that task.
 
An expert perceives meaningful patterns in her domain better than non-experts (= novice). Where a novice
perceives random (ngẫu nhiên) or disconnected data points, an expert connects regular patterns within and
between cases. This ability to identify patterns is not an innate perceptual skill; rather it reflects the
organization of knowledge after exposure to and experience with thousands of cases. Experts have a
deeper understanding of their domains than novices do, and utilize higher-order principles to solve problems. A
novice, for example, might group objects together by color or size, whereas an expert would group the same
objects according to their function or utility. Experts comprehend the meaning of data and weigh variables
with different criteria (tiêu chuẩn) within their domains better than novices. Experts recognize variables that
have the largest influence on a particular problem and focus their attention on those variables.
 generally = in most cases
Experts have better domain-specific short-term and long-term memory than novices do. Moreover, experts
perform tasks in their domains faster than novices and commit fewer errors while problem-solving.
Interestingly, experts go about (tackle) solving problems differently than novices. Experts spend more time
thinking about a problem to fully understand it at the beginning of a task than novices, who immediately seek to
find a solution. Experts use their knowledge of previous cases as context for creating mental models to solve
given problems.
 
Better at self-monitoring than novices, experts are more aware of instances where they have committed errors
or failed to understand a problem. Experts check their solutions more often than novices and recognize when
they are missing information necessary for solving a problem. Experts are aware of the limits of their domain
knowledge and apply their domain’s heuristics to solve problems that fall outside of their experience base.

QUESTIONS 15 - 21
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 15-21 on your answer sheet, write
 
YES                               if the statement agrees with the view of the writer
NO                                 if the statement contradicts the view of the writer
NOT GIVEN            if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
 
YES
 15.   Both freshmen (= novice: người mới, ng` chưa có knghiệm) and journeymen (thợ
lành nghề) need the help of a mentor to solve specific problems.
NOT GIVEN
 16.   Novices take more time to deal with a large number of cases than experts.
NOT GIVEN
 17.   The apprenticeship (sự/thời gian học nghề) model is always used to analyse the
behavior of experts and novices.
NO
 18.   A chess master is certainly qualified to play poker well.
YES
 19.   Experts and novices comprehend the meaning of data and weigh variables in
different ways.
NOT GIVEN
 20.   Experts generally have better memories than novices do.
 NO
 21.   Interestingly, experts take more time to solve problems than novices who
immediately seek to find a solution. NG
QUESTIONS 22 - 24
Complete the summary below.
Choose your answer from the list below and write them in boxes 22-24 on your answer sheet.
 
NB    There are more words than spaces so you will not use them all.
 
List of words
mentors chess description
laws apprenticeship new knowledge
complex tasks doctoral programs  
 
apprenticeships
 The (22)   is not only a mode of education, but a standard method of training.
doctoral programs
 On this basis, (23)   have been developed. 
mentors
 Graduates seek their (24)   in respective fields and begin the long process of
becoming experts.
QUESTIONS 25 - 27
Complete the notes below
Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS  from the passage for each answer.
 

From a novice chess player to an expert

offensive and defensive

+ An expert
- Makes predictions  based on patterns
- Test those predictions against actual behavior
- Generates new knowledge
her own cases
- Creates (27)